China destroyed 21,000 acres of West Philippine Sea coral reefs
China destroyed 21,000 acres of West Philippine Sea coral reefs
For the non-US people: 21,000 acres are around 84km² (a bit more than a 9 by 9km square).
I have zero idea how big the reef was to begin with (and God must have forbidden journalists from publishing data that would allow readers to make sense of the numbers they put in the headlines), but still it seems like decent amount was destroyed.
Yeah, it's not a lot percentually: that coral reef is estimated to be roughly 4600 square kilometers (though I found another source saying it to be over 26000).
But then again, the Amazon Forest is 6,7 million square kilometers, so if you look at just the numbers, it doesn't seem like much if 10 000 square kilometers is lost every year.
The most sensible unit of measurement is that it's 210 pooh bear forests, because that's the only way I know what an acre is